Tessa said:

Exactly.An orphaned kid in America has it much better than an orphan kid in Africa.

TommyRoss said:

Thank you!

It's amazing that,even when Madonna does something good,she gets criticized and it gets labelled a "publicity stunt"

Rhondab said:

actually,throughout the years,Madonna has poured millions of her own money into all types of charities here in the U.S,including AIDS charities and disaster relief charities.Of course,this doesn't always get reported by the media.I guess it's better to just assume that she is a selfish,uncaring celebrity who only cares about herself

dancerella said:

What gives anyone the right to "buy" a child? She wants to adopt, let the woman adopt. Even if Mads is just jumping on the latest trend, I hardly think the kid's going to end up abused and neglected once the novelty wears off. It's not as if Paris Hilton bought the kid for her small animal/purse accesory collection. Calm down.

go2theMax said:

To those people who think this is a "trend",I disagree,but so what if it is? Let's not lose sight of the fact that Madonna is helping this child.She is going to give this child a life that is drastically different from the life he now lives.Many celebrities just talk the talk (remember "We Are The World"?) but she is actually putting her money where her mouth is.If Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton follow suit,then so be it.At least they will finally be doing something meaningful with their money!

also, i don't think this is a publicity stunt. her PR team has adamantly denied that she is adopting a child. if it was a stunt, they'd be out there trumpeting it.

Does it matter?

The Madonna fans are already koolaid

lazycrockett said:

what do her fans have to do with this?

SoulAlive said:

cause the fans see this as a Madonna thing pr bullshit whatever icon bullshit stuff

well at least the smart ones
[Edited 10/13/06 2:04am]

lazycrockett said:

Lazycrocket, you have become my favorite angry orger!

Tessa said:

To some people,everything Madonna does is a publicity stunt

Never mind the fact that she is actually helping the less fortunate.It's more fun to believe that she is a cold,calculated bitch with no love in her heart.

SoulAlive said:

The fact that she "breathes" is a publicity stunt! She's such a whore!

MikeMatronik said:

yeah,what a tramp she is!

I seem to remember when she first got pregnant, all the papers accused her of only doing so for press exposure and basically called it a PR stunt - along with all the extremely scathing stories they cooked up about how she'd probably be an awful mother and how some one like her shouldnt be allowed to have kids.

It turned out that she was actually quite a good mother, and despite getting criticised for being strict with her children, i think anyone who's seen them in her documentary will agree that they seem like very bright, well adjusted children. I dont think anyone need worry that the childe will be loved and well cared for.

Like i said, i just hope she doesnt cut any corners using her wealth and status, and goes through all the proper channels.

SoulAlive said:

Let's burn our madonna cd...

asg said:

She did not die of AIDS.... she died of complication from the C-section she had giving birth to the little guy

awww

Group challenges Madonna adoption

POSTED: 11:53 a.m. EDT, October 13, 2006

LILONGWE, Malawi (Reuters) -- Malawi's leading child rights group said on Friday it would seek a court injunction to stop pop star Madonna adopting a one-year-old boy if the government did not put on hold its interim order approving the process.

"It's not like selling property," said a statement by Eye of the Child, a day after Malawi's High Court granted an interim order for Madonna to adopt the boy, named as David Banda.

"It is about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion," said the group, adding that the government circumvented it's own laws to fast-track the adoption process.

Madonna had left Malawi on Friday without the one-year-old boy she is adopting but with a pledge from the impoverished southern African nation to try to reunite the two while the adoption process is under way.

The pop diva's departure followed a controversial nine-day humanitarian visit to Malawi, during which her aides denied earlier reports by government officials that she had chosen to adopt a boy.

The child, identified as David Banda, was not with Madonna as her white four-wheel drive vehicle swept onto the tarmac to a waiting private jet at the international airport in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital.

"The baby hasn't gone yet because immigration is still trying to process his passport," a senior immigration official told Reuters on Friday, hours after the pop star's plane left the country.

Malawian officials said Madonna had been granted an interim order to adopt Banda and could be given a waiver or exemption allowing her to skirt a law that prohibits non-residents from adopting Malawian children.

They said they expected Banda to visit and spend time with Madonna, who has homes in the United States and Britain, while waiting for a hearing on the application, which could take up to two years.

Officials at the Malawian embassies will monitor how the child relates to his new environment during that time and write reports that will form the basis of a Malawian court's decision on the adoption, according to a senior government official.

The news that Banda, who has spent most of his life in the dilapidated Home of Hope Orphan Care Center near the Zambian border, could be heading for a new life overseas was seen as a blessing at the orphanage and in surrounding villages.

The child faced a bleak future after his mother died and his father, a poor man from a nearby village, could not support him.

"If we didn't send Davie away to the orphanage we would have buried him," said Henderson Geza Dyedyereke, the chief of Lipunga, after confirming this week that Banda was being adopted by Madonna, who already has a son and a daughter.

"We were looking for ways of feeding the child at the time, but we could not, so we had to send him away," the chief said.

While Banda's father has agreed to the adoption, others are taking a dimmer view of the prospect.

Madonna's visit to Malawi also has renewed criticism from those who accuse Western celebrities of using Africa and other parts of the developing world as a platform for misplaced, publicity-fueled altruism.

The 48-year-old singer of such hits as "Holiday" and "Material Girl" spent most of her time in Malawi visiting orphanages and meeting charity workers as part of a campaign to publicize the plight of some 900,000 orphans in this nation of 13 million people, where AIDS has destroyed many families.

She has pledged to donate about $3 million to the campaign to help these children, many of whom are infected with HIV. The effort is being spearheaded by her Raising Malawi charity.

Madonna stayed largely out of the limelight after arriving on Oct. 4, although she was seen wearing a safari hat and in a jovial mood on a visit to one orphanage.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ThreadBare said:

You would think that "Malawi's leading child rights group" would be trying to get every kid they could out of there by whatever means necessary.

SoulAlive said:

ok..what's up with the eye rollin'. I don't think anyone is doubting Madonna's work. She gets much props for that. That's not where the criticism lies. Its not about charity work. I don't even think anyone is saying Madonna is some awful mother. I think she's a great mother.

Its just a question of is this in fashion or is this geniune.

I'm sure this child will be fine with Maddy. I just don't think the question is specifically about HER but the trend itself.

so relax.....
[Edited 10/13/06 16:16pm]

SoulAlive said:

hmmmmm...so you think that $$$ is all that matters in raising a happy, healthy child. Yes it helps to provide the material things needed but money doesn't provide all that a child needs. I've seen GREAT parents (my grandparents) with little money and crappy neglectful parents with lost of $$$.

So you would be ok with Paris Hilton adopting a child and carrying the child around like tinker bell. COME ON.....

Tessa said:

Maybe they see it as a negative for a reason. Maybe, despite the deplorable conditions, they're afraid the toddler will lose something or miss out on something special by being adopted by Madonna.

Their point about the child not being a puppy is an interesting one.

African nations are extremely wary of colonial attitudes. Perhaps they view this adoption attempt as a form of exploitation and disrespect.

TommyRoss said:

So, since the childs father, and Grandmother is alive.... whats the problem here? What reason does she need to take this child from its family? Why are they so openly wanting to give the child away.. to a fucking celebrity at that.. Can she not give the family support by a form of income? or giving the family some type of structured support where the child gets to grow up with his family that is alive.

i'm glad kid isn't gonna starve or anything.. but sounds like a fucking fad to me..
[Edited 10/13/06 16:46pm]

ThreadBare said:

Then nobody that criticizes this stuff should ever utter a syllable about how shameful it is that the world doesn't do anything to help Africa.

Tessa said:

That's like saying environmentalists concerned with global deforestation shouldn't write protest letters on paper.

Rhondab said:

I think the only reason why this could appear to be a self centred pr stunt is simply the fact that we have so much more invasive, guerilla style media that reports a celebrity's every move, and make it more "sensational" than it actually is. Celebrities have been adopting kids from other countries for so long....Josephine Baker and her "rainbow tribe" in the 40's-50's for example, or Mia Farrow's brood that she began as far back as 1972. But back then you didn't have the press following your every move with high speed technology to globally spread their "news" minutes for public fodder. Another thing that I feel is so very important to point out, is that in the case of the latest, highly publicized orphan adoptions, you're looking at adoptive parents that spend the majority of their time outside of the borders of the United States.
In all sincerity, one of the things that I'm discovering by living outside of the US is that as much as I am of the midwest, or Florida, and I am still concerened about issues from the roots of where I was born, I'm also a global citizen now. I've spent 14 years traversing the globe and being part of and shaped by global events and communities that make me just as cognizant and concerned for srife EVERWHERE as much as in my own homeland. And much of it it has to do with geographic location and how it affects your life as well; for central Europe, we're only 3 hours flying in either direction to Africa or the Middle East, so we're very much aware of and affected by the happenings in those places on a consistent basis, the issues in those regions become part of your life somehow no matter where you were originally born. In my heart of hearts, what I truly believe, is that the likes of Jolie and Madonna are simply responding to crises and issues that they have intimate familiarity with based on years of being active with issues on a global scale. To see the likes of a Paris Hilton try something like this would be laughable, but Jolie and Madonna have been digging their heels into global community service for quite some time now, and as a result of being so intimately connected with those sorts of issues, the desire to adopt seems like a natural progression to me.

ThreadBare said:

exactly. they shouldn't.

Tessa said:

So, there's no room for nuance or moderation, just polar categorizations?


No one whose posts I've read have suggested anything against help for African nations. They have decried novelty adoptions -- for the same reasons humane associations discourage adopting puppies whimsically as Christmas presents.

ThreadBare said:

Honestly, it's none of those people's business who or what anyone adopts.

Ottensen said:

I agree with most everything that you're saying.

I think its just a broader question than Madonna specifically.